i took pictures but ill post them later....
.....so i took off the oil pan. it was very sludgy. i could scrape out enough to cover my whole hand! and the oil pick up screen was clogged up pretty bad.
i reinstalled the oil pan with black RTV. I hope i did a good job. no gasket mentioned in rave instructions, so i just thickened the rtv bead where the rave said and used no gasket. its finger tight now and in about 15min ill torque to 17ftlbs or less than a half turn tighter on each bolt in order.

the crappy thing is, its pouring rain all over me thew whole time!!!

 

Did you also renew the o ring for the pickup screen and put a dab of locktite on two bolts? Bet PCV system needs attention, and looking under the valve covers should be interesting.

 

buzz is it an o ring or a gasket? if the pan just glues on and it is an oring I may have around the garage I might as well do this while I wait for the heads to come back

 

....and also, i just got in the filter sandwitch from usps so i installed an manual oil pressure guage and mounted it on the firewall. gonna let the RTVd oil pan cure a little then fill her with oil later. crossing my fingers!!!!

I did not unmount the oil pick up. i checked that it was solid and cleaned it out with a rag and solvent. itll be flowing way better now. i cant wait to start her up!

 

rover4 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

rover1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

rover3 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

rover2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

I mis-spoke - it is a gasket. The point is that if it fails it sucks air, not oil. If the bolts come off on the trail, the strainer is the first to know that lubrication has stopped. That is why Loctite is advised.

 

nice pics, guess I am ordering a gasket for the pickup

 

I'd be dropping in an ounce or two of kerosene in my oil the day before each oil change for the next few changes. The idea is to break the sludge back down to oil so it can be picked up by the filter or drained out. A lot of the commercial stuff just break the sludge free and it ends up in the pan or pickup tube.

 

by the looks of the gasket it is a standard GM pickup gasket, any ideas? if so I probly have one lying around in a gasket set

 

Soooo....after refilling with rotella15-40, knock seemed to disappear. It was truly "liberating", as some described it here in the forum, to clean out the oil pick up and adding an oil guage. I celebrated and bragged to my wife(her car). Checked for leaks. None.

.....then, at idle for 10min or so, a different knock showed up. It's more like a muffled tap sound. Not the same knocking as before. Not as bad.

I still want to get to it. It's coming from the drivers rear valve cover.

In preparation of taking the plenum top off, what's the best sealant to use to reinstall that plenum seal? Do I need to get any gaskets ahead of time before opening things up? I already have the valve cover gaskets
It's kind of a daily driver so least downtime is best.